The present invention pertains generally to the organization and storage of flexible tubes and cables, and more particularly to devices for releasably constraining flexible tubes and cable together in a manner amenable to quick and repeatable bundling.
The need to coil or bundle wires, cables, flexible tubes, ropes and hoses exists throughout industry and home life. Devices such as extension cords, cables, air hoses, ropes, and other long, flexible articles (hereinafter referred to generically as xe2x80x9ccablesxe2x80x9d) present a storage problem, where coiled cables often become tangled due to the lack of constraints to keep the cables properly coiled. The traditional storage method is to wrap the cables around a person""s elbow and between the thumb and forefinger. Once the cable has been coiled, some form of strap is placed around the coil and fastened to prevent the coil from tangling or uncoiling.
An early device devised to act as a strap consisted of a simple piece of bendable wire which could be twisted to retain the wire around the bundled cables. Twist ties, as these wire retainers are frequently called, provide an economical tie, but can not be easily attached single-handedly, and furthermore have limited lifespans due to fatiguing of the wire. Furthermore, untwisting the tie can often be difficult.
Plastic variations of the twist tie have been developed which rely on toothed engagement fasteners to prevent the tie from coming lose. One variation of a plastic tie uses a serrated end which is passed through a slot in the opposite end of the tie as a means of adjustably fastening the tie. Although this construction is economical, it likewise does not lend itself to single-handed installation. Furthermore, once fastened, the serrated edges can be difficult to withdraw from the slot, making it difficult to remove the tie, and thus release bundled cables.
Later developments, such as the tying means shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,791 to Nakamura, incorporate one or more teeth on the end or ends of the strap to lock the strap in the closed position. These straps also utilize a normally open position to ease the difficulties of placing cables into the cavity of the device, allowing easier single handed operation. Once the device has been wrapped around the object or objects to be constrained, the ends of the strap are forced into engagement, locking the tie into place. Nakamura provides a pair of tabs to release the engagement teeth, allowing the band once fastened to be unlocked. Once unlocked, however, the mouth of the band is open, allowing bundled cables or wires to fall from the device. Furthermore, grouping the cables one at a time into the Nakamura device is difficult, since there is no method provided for holding the device while individual cables are placed into the device.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cable management device which is easily held to allow cables to be placed into the device one at a time, while reducing the likelihood of cables already placed into the device from falling out of the device. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a cable management device having a controllable mouth gap to ease the difficulties of placing cables or wires into the device. Finally, it is also an object of the present invention to provide a cable management device that can be readily released and reused.
The present invention is directed to a cable bundling device. The cable bundling device has a flexible strap portion for surrounding the bights of a bundled group of cables, wires, or other long flexible articles (hereafter referred to generically as xe2x80x9ccablesxe2x80x9d). The strap forms a circular shape to surround the bights. The circular shape forms a central cavity within which the cables may be restrained. The strap has three states. The strap has a first and a second end which form a discontinuity in the perimeter of the strap. Finger grips are mounted adjacent to the ends of the strap, allowing the fingers of a user to be inserted into the finger grips to pull the ends apart, thereby opening a mouth into the cavity of the cable bundling device. The strap has a relaxed state wherein the first and second ends are close together, such that the mouth of the device must be opened through use of the finger grips before cables can be placed into or removed from the cable bundling device. The strap also has an open state wherein the ends of the strap have been pulled apart to form the mouth.
In a further embodiment, the cable bundling device has engagement features located on the ends of the strap, allowing the strap ends to be locked together. The engagement features may be a tooth extending from a first end of the strap, and a slot extending from the second end. Placement of the tooth into the slot limits the ability of the two ends to be separated, thereby locking cables into the cavity of the cable bundling device. Placement of the tooth into the slot may be accomplished by forcing the ends of the strap to overlap, allowing the tooth and slot to enter into an interlocked state.
In a still further embodiment, engagement features may include a plurality of teeth on one end, with at least one tooth on the opposite end, such that the position of the two strap ends can be varied in the locked state allowing the cable bundling device to be tightened around a group of bundled cables.
Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment, and from the claims.